<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>The Heroes of Tomorrow Follow Those of Yesterday by Omegarose</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23332573">The Heroes of Tomorrow Follow Those of Yesterday</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Omegarose/pseuds/Omegarose'>Omegarose</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aged-Up Characters, Alpha Jason, Beta Frank, Disabled Character, F/M, Omega Leo, Omega Percy, Omegaverse, a/b/o dynamics, alpha annabeth, beta piper, disabled nico di angelo, estelle uses they/them pronouns, if these tags end up getting too long in the future i will get rid of a few of them lol, more tags will be added as i write the chapters, omega Clarisse, the HoO cast that is brought in are the same age as the books they start in, the original cast of the first series is aged up</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 06:22:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>9,960</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23332573</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Omegarose/pseuds/Omegarose</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy Jackson is twenty-five, married and mated to the love of his life, and happy. The Second Titan War had concluded nearly a full decade ago, and those that survived were determined to never let what happened to them happen again.</p><p>But the gods, as always, have other ideas.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Annabeth Chase &amp; Chiron, Annabeth Chase &amp; Clarisse La Rue, Annabeth Chase &amp; Sally Jackson (Percy Jackson), Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>98</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Percabeth Fanfics</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Waking in the Wolf House (Percy)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Percy woke up disoriented.</p><p>It felt as though a thick fog had been pulled from him, his mind disorganized and his limbs stiff like he hadn’t moved them in a very long time.</p><p>As he woke more...pieces were missing.</p><p>The thought of “where am I?” was met with “where am I supposed to be?”</p><p>Where was he supposed to be? Here<span>—</span>wherever it was<span>—</span>certainly wasn’t right with its dirt-covered floor and ruins of the semi-collapsed building he was apparently in. But what <em> was </em> right? He couldn’t conjure an image of a house, or an apartment, or even a living room that felt even slightly familiar.</p><p>How could he have no memory of a home, even one which was not his own? Percy knew that there should be something there, but there wasn’t.</p><p>He had to have friends, or family, or at least a familiar face in his memory<span>—</span>and they were there, they had to be<span>—</span>but as he reached for them they slipped from his grasp. All aside one, which was closer than the rest. He clung to it.</p><p>The woman was blonde, with gray eyes and beautiful curls. Her name was Annabeth. He loved her. She was his wife, his mate, his alpha.</p><p>He didn’t know anything else. Not where he lived, not their last name, not his own birthday.</p><p>“Percy Jackson.”</p><p>Percy jumped, hand flying to his pocket. Without thought he pulled out a ballpoint pen and uncapped it, revealing a bronze sword that felt right in his hands. In the same motion he was jumping to his feet, landing in a crouch to face the direction the voice had come.</p><p>From the shadows emerged wolves, big and silver, calmer than he was expecting. <em> ((He was expecting teeth, and glowing red eyes, and night-black pelts?)) </em></p><p>The largest wolf was before him. He knew that she was amused, somehow.</p><p>“There is hope for you yet,” she said, and he realized she said no words out loud. It was projected straight into his mind, or maybe he just knew exactly what she wanted him to know.</p><p>“Who are you?”</p><p>“I am Lupa, the Mother Wolf.”</p><p>“Who am I?”</p><p>She might’ve laughed, had she been human. “You are the son of the sea god, Percy Jackson.”</p><p>The wolves moved in slow circles around him, and he kept track of them even as he looked only at Lupa, especially those at his back. <em> ((He had to protect his back at all costs.)) </em></p><p>“Why am I here? Why can’t I remember anything?”</p><p>“It is as the Queen demands. You are part of her plan to bring the Earth Mother to ruin.”</p><p>“Hera?” Percy asked, the name jumping to his mouth.</p><p>“Juno,” Lupa corrected. “She wants me to train you, to ready you for your trials.”</p><p>Percy found that hilarious. He was certain that he didn’t need training, though he had no proof to back it.</p><p>“You think you are above my training?” asked the she-wolf. Her pack growled from all around him. Percy wasn't afraid.</p><p>“I’m sure you could teach me, Mother Wolf, but I think I’d rather try my luck and get this over as fast as possible.”</p><p>“You are arrogant, son of the sea.”</p><p>“That, or I know my own strength," he countered with an easy grin. Or, at least, a grin that came to him with hardly a thought, despite him feeling no particular amusement.</p><p>Lupa's lips curled up from her teeth, and the wolves surrounding him snarled. “You will learn what you must, and what you must know is how to fight. Beat me and you may begin your journey. Lose and accept your ignorance.”</p><p>It seemed logical to protest her duel. She was a goddess, and Percy was only a demigod. Yet, he felt no worry as he readied his sword.</p><p>“Here?” he asked.</p><p>“The courtyard,” she said.</p><p>Outside the wind was sharp, but not cold enough for winter. The few trees he could see had bare branches, and half-decomposed leaves and mud covered the ground. The sky was clear, and the stars lit the night. Percy found his eyes drawn to a constellation that he knew was one of a huntress, though how he knew that was beyond his grasp.</p><p>The wolves did not follow Lupa and Percy into the courtyard. They gathered in the windows and doorways that surrounded them, reduced to nothing but eyes in the darkness, watching.</p><p>Percy knew Lupa would not announce the start of their fight, and to do so himself would be seen as a weakness. Instead, he waited just long enough for her to lunge.</p><p>The wolves of Lupa’s pack bore witness as she deflected Percy’s blade with her maw, and the stars lay testament when Lupa’s teeth closed over Percy’s raised forearm and glanced off as though she’d bitten steel.</p><p>The invulnerability of his skin did not surprise Percy, though he knew that it was not common for humans or even demigods to have the ability. <em> ((He hadn’t always borne that curse.)) </em></p><p>The fight was a deadly dance of claws-and-teeth-on-blade-and-skin. Percy kept her from the small of his back at all costs, which wasn’t all that difficult. He found he naturally guarded it, twisting and pivoting as Lupa lunged. Percy rolled when Lupa knocked his leg out under him, and she flipped back when he shoved her away. </p><p>They were not equally matched<span>—</span>no, Lupa was not using all the advantages she could. She was a wolf, operating best in ambushes and shadows. Instead she met him on his fighting grounds. But she was still a goddess and Percy was just a demigod that managed to hold his own.</p><p>Finally, as they eyed each other from opposite ends of the courtyard, Percy’s breath measured even as the exertion made him want to gasp, Lupa stood down. Her bared teeth were hidden, and her haunches un-tensed.</p><p>“You were right to be arrogant, son of the sea,” she said. The glowing eyes of the wolves faded from the windows and doors, until there were nothing left but shadows, him, and Lupa.</p><p>Percy pulled a cap out of his pocket and sheathed his sword, a simple pen once more. “I might not have fared as well if you hadn’t made it a more fair fight.”</p><p>She was amused, once more, but there was an edge underneath that was...unclear. Was it anger at being bested? Fear at the power he wielded? Appreciation of his respect? A mix of the three? Something else entirely?</p><p>“You may leave, Percy Jackson. Go south, and the gods will guide you to where you need to be.”</p><p>Percy nodded, steel settling into his spine. A quest was something he knew he could do. <em> ((He had done countless before.)) </em></p><p>“May I ask you something, before I go?”</p><p>She conceded with a single dip of her head.</p><p>“Where is my wife?”</p><p>“You know of her?” Lupa asked, something like surprise lacing in her words.</p><p>“I know her name, and how she looks. I know that I need her at my side, if I am to manage completing whatever trials are put before me,” he answered, truthfully. <em> ((Annabeth was always there, she was his constant, his life, his match in everything.)) </em></p><p>“The Queen did not manage to take her from you,” Lupa said.</p><p>It had not been a question, but Percy answered anyways, “Not completely. Nothing could make me forget her.”</p><p>Lupa shifted her weight, not willing to turn her back but indicating she wished for him to leave. “You will find your answers when you reach your destination.”</p><p>Percy turned to leave, pausing in the doorway that seemed most likely to lead him out of the crumbling remains of the mansion. “Thank you, Lupa.”</p><p>The she-wolf goddess did not respond, but he hadn’t really expected her to.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Edits made 1/8/21</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Keep the Children /Children/ (Annabeth)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It didn’t sit right with Annabeth when Jason, Piper, and Leo were sent on their quest only a day after arriving at camp.</p><p>Ever since the war they had been doing their best to keep the children <em> children</em>. As per Percy’s favor, the gods had to send their demigod children in the direction of camp by their thirteenth birthday<span>—</span>earlier, if the kids started attracting monsters. It was then up to camp to train them so that they could have a fighting chance. And the older demigods who had been through that war, who had spent years of their lives convinced that their godly parent could care less, fought <em> tooth and nail </em> to give them that chance.</p><p>That meant no more quests given to an overeager twelve year old, a brand new camper, and a young satyr. Or baby cyclops, or teenagers with something to prove, or untested Hunters of Artemis, or kids filled with rage at the world, or a bombing mission that was so important that blowing <em> yourself </em> up in the process was practically encouraged as long as it got results. No matter how hypocritical it might be.</p><p>So, when three fifteen year olds<span>—t</span>wo with no knowledge about anything godly up until that day, and the other without memories<span>—</span>showed up only to immediately be given a quest? Annabeth would normally never let it fly.</p><p>But she was also worried sick and exhausted after searching for her missing husband. She blamed the sleep deprivation and anguish on why she let those three get sent out alone, with the slightly malfunctioning bronze dragon that had been terrorizing campers for the last decade on-and-off when it got its wires crossed up.</p><p>“Chiron, what the fuck!”</p><p>The centaur gave her a bland look. “My dear, might I remind you that <em> you </em> sent them off.”</p><p>She huffed and fixed the picture frames she knocked over when she’d burst into his office. She had been halfway through absently making her morning coffee <em> ((she’d almost made enough for two before she caught herself)) </em> when she realized that Jason, Piper, and Leo were gone. She ran over to the Big House in a pair of Percy’s flip flops and her pajamas.</p><p>“I know we’ve been trying to stop that sort of thing,” Chiron said, gently. “And I’m sorry that this is happening to them, truly, but there is nothing you or I can do about a prophecy.”</p><p>“We could have sent an adult or a more experienced camper with them!” Annabeth argued. “And it didn’t <em> have </em> to be those three, just kids of those gods!”</p><p>“Annabeth,” Chiron said. She knew what he meant. Why hadn’t those three been found until now? Who exactly was Jason son of Zeus? Why had Dionysus left camp so suddenly? Why had the prophecy said Hera was in chains? Why was Leo Valdez a rare controller of flames?<span>—</span>if not for a reason.</p><p>She felt like crying.</p><p>Jason made Annabeth think of Thalia, as the only other demigod child of Zeus she had ever met. Both alphas, both simmering with righteous fury. Thalia wore that anger in her cropped hair, in the spikes of her clothing, in her silver circlet<span>—</span>the ultimate mark of defiance against a prophecy she never asked for, a turning away from her father-god for a new patron. Jason was confused and without his memory, but he was no stranger to being yanked around by the gods if his very presence was any confirmation. And Annabeth knew better than most the type of anger that festered when the gods fucked with their demigod children</p><p>Piper was so much like her late elder sister, Silena. Both were betas and practically unremarkable compared to the rest of the Aphrodite cabin, but if you were to take a moment to really look at them you’d notice how beautiful they really were. Annabeth didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but she thought Piper likely had a secret from what she had seen while showing her around camp. She could only hope it was nowhere near as bad as Silena’s had been.</p><p>Leo inexplicably reminded her of another omega, flighty and impulsive and unknowingly so far out of his depth. Maybe she was reading into what little she’d seen of him an unfair amount, but he seemed to have a deep pain. He covered it with humor, maybe, instead of embracing it and using it as armor like Nico had, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there.</p><p>Annabeth couldn’t believe that the trio was out there on their own<span>—</span>Leo with nothing but his flames and hands, Piper with only her charmspeak and a cursed dagger she didn’t know how to use, Jason with his golden weapon and experience but no reliable way to access it. She couldn’t believe it, but she could imagine it because quests like that had defined her teenage years.</p><p>“Jason is supposed to lead me to Percy,” she said miserably. Had that been part of the reason she let them leave like that, some twisted priority of her husband over three kids’ lives?</p><p>“I know,” Chiron said.</p><p>Annabeth scrubbed at her face. “Jason was my strongest lead and without him...there’s nothing else for me to do. I’m going to Sally’s, she and Paul must be distraught.”</p><p>The twitch of his brows meant <em> like you? </em></p><p>“Call me if anything happens?” she requested.</p><p>“Of course.”</p><p> </p><p>~~~</p><p> </p><p>The Jackson-Blofis home was, as always, a haven.</p><p>Sally’s omega scent had always seemed especially motherly to Annabeth, and ever since she and Percy had gotten together Sally <em> was </em> sort of like her mom. Even in her worry for Percy she was a comfort. Estelle and Paul both smelled like pack, albeit slightly more distant than the close pack Annabeth had built at camp.</p><p>“What’s going on?” Estelle demanded almost the moment Annabeth walked in<span>—</span>after, of course, they threw themself into her arms and rubbed their cheeks together. Standing there, arms crossed with eight-and-a-half year old fury, Annabeth couldn’t help but smile even if it was weak.</p><p>“Nothing slips past you, huh?”</p><p>Estelle frowned.</p><p>Sally brushed their cheeks together in the familiar greeting as she ushered Annabeth into the living room. Estelle followed, stormy and upset. Paul offered Annabeth one of Sally’s blue cookies<span>—</span>fresh, it looked like<span>—</span>and a bracing smile.</p><p>“Any news?” Sally asked as soon as they were sitting.</p><p>Annabeth shook her head. “I found the boy with one shoe, but...he didn’t know anything. He just left for a quest with two new campers as per the prophecy that was given. Apparently the queen goddess is trapped somehow.”</p><p>Sally wilted.</p><p>“What are you talking about?” Estelle asked, furious.</p><p>Annabeth glanced at Sally and Paul. He nodded to his wife, and Sally jerked her head up-and-down in permission.</p><p>“Percy is missing,” Annabeth told Estelle, gently as she could manage.</p><p>They blinked. “Oh.”</p><p>“I’ve been looking for him for a few days now,” she explained. “Tyson, Nico, Thalia with the Hunters, Grover, and any demigod not currently at camp are also on the lookout.”</p><p>Estelle took a blue cookie and shoved most of it in their mouth. “How’d he go missing?” they asked, spraying crumbs.</p><p>Annabeth shrugged helplessly. “I woke up and he was gone, No sign of a break in, nothing but his shoes and the clothes he was wearing the day before were missing.”</p><p>Estelle was looking quite worried, now, but had yet to lose the steely resolve that had allowed them the knowledge of their older brother's status in the first place. “But everyone is looking for him?”</p><p>“Everyone I could make contact with. The gods aren’t, but…” <em> they were sort of absent at the moment </em> “they normally don’t with this sort of thing.”</p><p>“You’re gonna find him, right?”</p><p>“Of course.”</p><p>They looked serious as they took another blue cookie. “Good.”</p><p>Sally brushed her wrist lovingly around the curve of Estelle’s face, but she didn’t look as reassured. She knew that godly things didn’t always have happy endings, not like the stories Percy and Annabeth would tell Estelle. Sometimes quests were for nothing, often the gods were unfair, on occasion people died. Much less frequently, now that the war was done and camp was being run in a more helpful manner.</p><p>Annabeth, of course, remembered that vividly. But Percy...he had the tightly reined control over the sea and earth, he had Riptide at the ready, he had won a war that saved Olympus. He was too important, too well favored, to be killed just like that. Especially by any god<span>—</span>it had to be one, nothing else could get past the border much less Annabeth herself.</p><p>Percy may be a demigod hero, practically fated for tragedy, but with his sort of prestige came huge battles and lifelong adversaries coming to a head. Annabeth would be sent straight to Tartarus before she let that happen to him.</p><p> </p><p>~~~</p><p> </p><p>Jason, Piper, and Leo came back successful and relatively unharmed.</p><p>
  <em> ((Annabeth was so, so glad that their lives wouldn’t be staining her hands. She couldn’t handle it, no more lives would be lost because of or for her. The quest that was mostly to save Artemis but was also for her, all those battle strategies that failed during the war, every demigod that she wasn’t clever enough to save since.)) </em>
</p><p>Jason was Roman. He came from a camp in California that housed Roman demigods and their children alike. Sort of like the housing that Annabeth had begun construction on a little over five years ago, only more permanent. New Rome had schools, a hospital, and shops. It’s own little city, protected by the legion of <em> children </em> that was Camp Jupiter.</p><p>She had all sorts of thoughts on that. If there were adults available, why the <em> fuck </em> were they making their children fight? And it was a mandatory service that started that young, even if you grew up in the city.</p><p>At least she knew where Percy probably was, even if Jason and Chiron were insisting that they had to wait to go to him.</p><p>Jason was going off what Hera had insisted upon him, at least. And Chiron had explained the consequences that the Greeks and Romans meeting had always had. It had only led to civil wars and bloodshed in the past, it was why the gods had pulled the Mist so thickly between them.</p><p>Everything was in a delicate place as Hera orchestrated the Prophecy of the Seven. Annabeth knew that, through Hera’s intervention, Percy and Jason were both automatically going to be a piece of it. Piper and Leo, too. Despite Annabeth’s hatred for prophecies she was determined to be part of it. Not even the Fates themselves would be able to pull her from her mate’s side when they finally reunited.</p><p>Of course, she also wanted to help these kids that were the same age she was when she’d fought a war. They didn’t deserve to bear this burden practically alone, like she and Percy had at that age<span>—</span>they had been the head of the war, all the planning, all the tactics, all the leadership. The war council of fellow cabin heads hardly counted, not when it was Annabeth they looked to for reassurance and Percy that had been giving the orders.</p><p>“Will he be alright without me?” Annabeth asked Clarisse, late one February night as the younger campers sang around the campfire, monitored by some of the adults that almost always joined in. Leo was sleeping half curled into Jason’s lap and not even stirring at the noise, exhausted from the near constant work he’d been doing on the boat, while Piper yawned as she slumped against Jason’s other side. Jason had his cheek resting at the top of Piper's head, eyes half open. Annabeth was just as exhausted, but she was finding it difficult to rest without her husband’s scent right beside her. It was fading from their bed, their home, his clothes.</p><p>“That better not be some comment about the capabilities of omegas,” the omega daughter of Ares said.</p><p>Annabeth gave her a flat look, despite the tears that threatened to spill over.</p><p>“Look,” Clarisse said. “I get that you’re worried about him, and that he does stupid stuff when you’re not around to remind him how stupid he is, but he’s not a complete idiot. He knows his way around that sword and you and I both know how deadly he is when he wants to be. And the Queen is going to make sure he gets to that Roman camp intact, besides.”</p><p>“I don’t know about intact,” Annabeth muttered, leaning on Clarisse’s shoulder.</p><p>“He’s got the Mark of Achilles, blondie, of course he’s arriving with all the limbs he started with.”</p><p>It was nearly summer now. The ship would be ready within the month and they could set off for New Rome as soon as it was. The monsters were only getting more and more difficult to properly kill, and all but a few demigods had been recalled to camp for their own safety. </p><p>It was only a matter of time before she saw Percy again.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Wow so like I don't really update my pjo fics that much, huh? I was randomly struck with inspiration for this, though, and do really like to write it. </p><p>Comments are appreciated! </p><p>I'm <a href="https://omegros.tumblr.com/">omegros</a> on tumblr if you want to drop by and say hi!</p><p>Edits made 1/8/21</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. New Rome (Percy)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Percy was so beyond officially done with the two monsters that had been tailing him for the past week.</p><p>Like all of the monsters <em> ((the non-humans ones, anyways)) </em> that Percy had encountered in his journey from the Wolf House to where he was now in San Francisco, the two refused to die. Unlike the rest of the monsters that he’d encountered they were stubbornly <em> persistent</em>.</p><p>The other monsters either took longer to reform or reformed and slunk away with their tails tucked between their legs—some more literally than others. For some reason Stheno and Euryale had some sort of vendetta against him. Apparently he’d killed their sister, Medusa, at some point. A rather impressive feat, he figured, even if he had no memory of it.</p><p>A fair enough reason to swear their vengeance, too, he supposed, even if it was incredibly inconvenient. If they would just stay dead for a bit longer and not force him to stop every three hours or so to kill them again, he might even sympathize with them.</p><p>The strange tugging sensation that he’d been following ever since he’d left Lupa and her wolves behind was pulling him to the Calcotta tunnel, just below him. As he was problem solving a way to get <em> down </em> there the gorgons showed up.</p><p>“You again?” he groaned, turning to face them.</p><p>Stheno was standing there with her sample platter of Cheese ’n’ Wieners and vivid Bargain Mart vest. Her sister was undoubtedly right behind her.</p><p>“Would you like a free sample?” she offered.</p><p>Those Cheese ’n’ Wieners had lasted for entirely too long without taking a spot of damage despite the banged up tray that they were on. Percy wouldn’t be putting any of them anywhere near his mouth. Either the gorgons did something to them or whatever company made them didn’t make them with what any sane person would consider food. The snack tray did give him a ridiculous idea, though.</p><p>“Ow!” Stheno complained when he ran her through with his sword and made off with the tray.</p><p>“Hey! Don’t stab my sister! Only I’m allowed to do that!” Euryale yelled as she crested the hill.</p><p>Percy bisected her, too, for good measure, even though it would only slow them both down for a handful of minutes. Long enough for him to get to the base of the hill, hopefully, and into whatever protection that this place had to offer.</p><p>He eyed the entrance, in the median between several lanes of freeway traffic, feeling dizzy from his impromptu snowless sledding and from the strange feeling of <em> wrongness </em> he felt looking at the two kids guarding what looked to be a maintenance entrance.</p><p>It wasn’t the weaponry—even if the sword was <em> much </em> too oversized for the shorter of the two—or the fact that they had on jeans with their armor, but rather some sort of cognitive dissonance that made him so uneasy. It was like he was expecting some different color than purple for their shirts <em> ((the, admittedly tattered, orange t-shirt he wore wouldn’t be that out of place…)) </em> or the style of armor was just slightly off.</p><p>He looked longingly in the direction of the ocean, for a moment. Whatever lay behind that tunnel looked like it would only cause him a headache, where at least in the sea he would be in his element. There was no guarantee he would find his wife, though, if he didn’t follow the pulling sensation into the tunnel.</p><p>He couldn’t shake the feeling that something…unfriendly lay behind those two kids, though.</p><p>“You're right, of course,” said a woman directly beside him.</p><p>Percy tensed, hand flexing for his pen, but it was only what looked to be an old woman who’d been homeless since being a hippie was a lifestyle choice teenagers regularly made. She seemed harmless enough, sitting on the ground in a rainbow-quilt dress made out of rags, but she somehow managed to pass under his radar. That was grounds enough for wariness.</p><p>“Who are you?” he asked, hand still on the pen form of his sword.</p><p>“Oh you can call me June,” the woman said with a gummy grin. “It <em> is </em> June, isn’t it? Good thing I waited those two extra months, it was a bit of a gamble.”</p><p>Percy fought against the urge to edge away from her. Not because of the general homeless smell that covered any hint of a dynamic, but because she gave off an aura of not being quite human. He just couldn’t tell if she was the dangerous, benevolent, or helpful type yet.</p><p>“Okay...look, I should go. Two gorgons are coming. I don’t want them to hurt you.”</p><p>“How sweet!” June crowed. “But that’s part of your choice.”</p><p>What choice was she talking about? Percy wanted to go to the ocean, maybe, if just because he knew it would be easy, but his questions about Annabeth wouldn’t be answered there. There <em> was </em> no choice.</p><p>The two gorgons were picking their way down the hill with their chicken feet, little leathery wings spread behind them. About to take off, probably.</p><p>“A choice, yes,” June rambled as if the gorgons weren’t literally rising off the ground within a concerning distance. “You could leave me here at the mercy of the gorgons and go to the ocean. You’d make it there safely, I guarantee. The gorgons will be quite happy to attack me and let you go. In the sea-”</p><p>“Or?” Percy cut in, impatient. She seemed to like to hear herself talk and they didn’t have time for that. He just needed to hear what he needed to do to get into that tunnel.</p><p>“Or you could do a good deed for an old lady,” she said with a slight annoyance. “Carry me to the camp with you.”</p><p>So it was a camp, then. Percy had been thinking of the place as such, even if all he knew was that Lupa had directed him south and the gods had continued to lead him from there. That, and the promise of information about his wife that Lupa had given him as he left.</p><p>“And I’m going to carry you, why?” he asked. The gorgons were gliding closer, but he had nothing to worry about. Whatever made his skin like steel meant that the pair was little more than an annoyance. This woman—while definitely more than she seemed—didn’t have that same protection.</p><p>“Because it’s a kindness!” she said, hiking up her skirts enough to show her swollen feet. “And if you don’t, the gods will die, the world we know will perish, and everyone from your old life will be destroyed. Of course, you wouldn’t remember them, so I suppose it won’t matter. You’d be safe at the bottom of the sea…”</p><p>Percy sighed. Of course carrying her was of such importance. If he offended her, he would be fucked over, memories kept from him and potentially get his forgotten friends and family killed. Get <em> Annabeth </em> hurt.</p><p>He scooped the old woman up with little preamble. She was lighter than he was expecting, all things considered. He started across the freeway at a halting, patient pace as to attempt not to get run over. Getting run over would probably count as failing his task to carry her to safety.</p><p>“Clever boy! Found a goddess to carry, did you?” Stheno called down.</p><p>Percy nearly dropped the woman then-and-there. Oh, that would definitely not help his memory situation, but he had a deep seated and immediate reaction of being told he was being tricked into helping a goddess. That reaction being, primarily, disgust.</p><p>“Get them!” Euryale screamed. “Two prizes are better than one!”</p><p>He was nearly to the two kids, on the median rather than the freeway. June was getting heavier with every moment, making it more awkward to carry her rather than hard. Fucking goddesses.</p><p>The bigger of the two kids aimed his bow at the gorgons, hitting at least one of them based off the screeching.</p><p>“That should’ve killed her!” he said. This close Percy could tell he was a beta, and not recently presented—placing his age to the latter half of fourteen or older. He had a baby face, though, so Percy was comfortable placing him below eighteen.</p><p>“Yeah,” Percy agreed easily.</p><p>“Frank,” the girl—probably, she was unpresented and <em> tiny</em>, probably around thirteen <em> fucking hell</em>—said. “Get them inside, quick! Those are gorgons!”</p><p>“Gorgons?” the boy asked, voice squeaking. “Will the door hold them?”</p><p>“No, no it won’t. Onward, Percy Jackson! Through the tunnel, over the river to shed your blessing and enter Rome!” June said. Percy jostled her to readjust his grip and get her bony knees to stop digging into his side.</p><p>The girl blinked at them, seemingly processing that there was a man holding a (not-so-)homeless woman in front of them. “Are you a demigod-nevermind. Just get inside, I’ll hold them off,” she said, clearly thinking better of having a chat while the two gorgons were quickly descending. </p><p>“Hazel, don’t be crazy,” Frank protested.</p><p>Percy would drop June and help them if it was needed, obviously, but he was hesitant to do that unless it came down to life-or-death simply because he <em> needed </em> to know about Annabeth. Those kids had no way of knowing that, though, nor would they know if he was even <em> capable </em> of helping.</p><p>“Go!” she demanded.</p><p>“Will you be okay?” Percy asked.</p><p>“<em>Yes</em>,” Hazel insisted.</p><p>“Come on!” Frank said, opening the door.</p><p>Percy followed him, feeling terrible at leaving the kid by herself, but she seemed to be the more confident of the two. There also seemed to be a certain sort of power lurking within her, and he knew he couldn’t underestimate her based only on her age. June weighed heavier in his arms, humming something in what might have been Latin. Combined with the few weeks of poor nutrition and little sleep and the constant running from the gorgons, the weight was almost more than he could take while jogging to keep up with Frank.</p><p>The entire tunnel shook and stones fell, and the gorgons made a sound that they’d made more than once before as they died.</p><p>“Is Hazel-” Percy started to ask.</p><p>“She’ll be okay—I hope,” Frank said. “She’s good underground, just keep moving! We’re almost there.”</p><p>“All roads lead there,” June said, cryptically. “You should know that.”</p><p>“Say what you mean,” Percy gritted out, trying to be polite to the goddess who may or may not possess his memories but losing his patience.</p><p>“Rome!” June said. “Keep up!”</p><p>Rome wasn’t in California, but he wasn’t about to waste his breath arguing with her.</p><p>The three ran from the tunnel. Below was a valley that contained a lake and a river that curved around a gleaming city, a scattering of buildings on a hill that Percy instinctually recognized as temples, and what could have been a military encampment just on the other side of the nearest part of the river.</p><p>It was...not right. Not <em> wrong </em>, but not what Percy was expecting and not reassuring. That same sense of this place being unfriendly was unshakable. Not a danger in the immediate sense, but a feeling of misplacement.</p><p>“Camp Jupiter,” Frank introduced, nodding towards the military encampment. “We’ll be safe once-”</p><p>Hazel came running up behind them covered in dust. She’d lost her helmet, hair puffed up around her head, a slash in her armor. “I slowed them down,” she panted. “But they’ll be here any second.”</p><p>“We have to get across the river,” Frank said.</p><p>“Oh, yes, please. I can’t get my dress wet,” June said.</p><p>Percy rolled his eyes.</p><p>Frank and Hazel ran alongside him, even though he was going slower than they would’ve been on their own. </p><p>“Go, Hazel,” Frank said when they’d reached the river, drawing his bow. “Escort Percy so the sentries don’t shoot him. It’s my turn to hold off the baddies.”</p><p>Hazel began to wade into the river, but Percy didn’t follow immediately. The river felt <em> immensely </em> powerful and hostile, like all of those unfriendly vibes were concentrated into one spot. </p><p>“The Little Tiber,” June said, sympathetic. It didn’t feel genuine. “It flows with the power of the original Tiber, river of the empire. This is your last chance to back out, child. The mark of Achilles is a Greek blessing. You can’t retain it if you cross into Roman territory. The Tiber will wash it away.”</p><p>“Fuck off,” Percy muttered. With her hands latched around his neck she definitely could hear him, but he could give less of a shit.</p><p>“What will it be?” June asked, sounding less like an addled old woman by the minute. “Safety, or a future of pain and possibility?”</p><p>“Shut <em> up</em>,” he told her, and raised the river from it’s bed. </p><p>Hazel, standing in the center, gasped as she was drenched from the process. Horns blew from the sentry towers and the crossbows got mostly aimed towards the gorgons that had just sailed from the tunnel.</p><p>Percy calmly walked beneath the raised river—raging from above him, furious at being held by <em> him </em> specifically. He set it back down and felt a wave of something wash over him. Not the invulnerability being washed away, but a sort of grudging acceptance from the latent power of the river.</p><p>“Cheating,” June cackled. “You’re a dirty, dirty cheat!”</p><p>Percy dropped her on the ground.</p><p>A bunch of kids in armor came out of the gates to the encampment, looking unsure of how to address the situation of Percy and the old-homeless-hippie-goddess, but at least preparing for the two gorgons.</p><p>“Frank!” Hazel cried from Percy’s side.</p><p>Frank was nearly across the river when each gorgon took hold of an arm each.</p><p>Without thinking of it Percy reached out his hands, manipulating the river water like a puppeteer. It worked with him like any other water would, unlike the resistance of when he’d raised it up only moments ago. The water restrained the gorgons and pried Frank from their grip with minimal fuss, considering their claws had bitten into his arm. Percy set Frank on the bank of the river and <em> shoved </em> the gorgons together until they were nothing more than dust, then pushed the river back to normal and urged it to <em> scatter </em> the remains.</p><p>Percy turned around.</p><p>Everyone was staring at him, except for June who was giving him a sort of contemplative look.</p><p>“Well, that was a lovely trip,” she said. “Thank you, Percy Jackson, for bringing me to Camp Jupiter.”</p><p>A girl cleared her throat. She must’ve been in charge, since everyone looked to her when she took a step forward. She opened her mouth, probably to ask what the hell was happening, but June didn’t let her.</p><p>The disguised goddess began to glow, shifting into a glowing, seven foot woman with a goatskin cloak and a lotus-flower staff.</p><p>Everyone knelt, some with a slow awe, others with a hasty fear.</p><p>“Juno,” Hazel breathed, just before falling to her knees in the mud formed by her dripping clothes.</p><p>Percy made no move to kneel. He had no reason to—not after carrying her, not after she tricked him, not because she somehow inherently deserved his respect because she <em> didn’t</em>.</p><p>“I did what you asked,” he said. “Where’s my wife?”</p><p>Her stern expression faltered for a fraction of a second. “Remember her, do you? In time, Percy Jackson, you will regain your memories and through them, her. If you succeed.”</p><p>Percy scowled. “So glad I saved you from those gorgons.”</p><p>She gave him a thin smile before addressing the kneeling kids. “Romans, I present to you the Son of Neptune. For months he has been slumbering, but now he is awake. His fate is in your hands. Gaea stirs, the Feast of Fortune comes quickly, and Death must be unleashed if you are to stand any hope in the battle. Do not fail me!”</p><p>Luckily for her she disappeared. If she had stuck around for any longer Percy might’ve put Riptide through her. Would’ve worked just as well as when he stabbed Stheno, but it would’ve been satisfying.</p><p>“So,” says the girl who was probably the leader, the first to rise. She looked like she didn’t know what to make of him.</p><p>From the corner of his eye Percy noticed Frank slipping two small clay flasks into his pockets.</p><p>“A son of Neptune, who comes to us with the blessing of Juno,” she said.</p><p>“That’d be me,” Percy agreed. “Um, is there some sort of supervisor I can talk to? My memory was wiped and I’ve got a couple of questions.”</p><p>“I’m in charge,” the girl said with a severe frown. “I am Reyna, praetor of the Twelfth Legion.”</p><p>Percy nearly laughed. Her? She was sixteen, give or take a year or two. Though nearly everyone else surrounding him were also teenagers or straight up unpresented kids like Hazel, there were people older than Reyna there.</p><p>She had a look in her eyes, though, the type of look that made Percy fond, inexplicably. She looked more than competent, and determined despite her young age. A beta, firm and steady and cemented into her place as leader. He could believe that people would be inclined to listen to her, and that she would be able to handle it. <em> ((She shouldn’t have to handle it, though, not without help, not without an </em> <span class="u"><b> <em>adult</em></b></span><em>.)) </em></p><p>“Hazel,” said Reyna, “bring him inside. I want to question him at the <em> principia</em>. Then we’ll send him to Octavian. We must consult the auguries before we decide what to do with him.”</p><p>“Gonna throw me in the stocks?” Percy asked.</p><p>Reyna tensed. Not used to being denied, then, even if it was only a joke. “Before we accept anyone into camp, we must interrogate them and read the auguries. Juno said your fate is in our hands. We have to know whether the goddess has brought us a new...recruit...or an enemy to kill.”</p><p>He followed Reyna, Frank, and Hazel through the camp/military encampment, until finally entering the edges of the city.</p><p>Everyone who wasn’t a ghost—“House gods, or Lares,” Hazel had explained—was younger than Percy was. The oldest might’ve been twenty-two, at the latest, and most were teenagers with a few kids as young as ten. Those young adults reassured some deep worry in the pit of his stomach, but the lack of a proper supervising adult <em> ((maybe a professor-y looking man with a beard or a disheveled looking man in a Hawaiian shirt)) </em> still tugged at something anxious in his chest.</p><p>The Lares didn’t like him, either, acting with outright fear and scorn in most cases, hissing <em> “Graecus” </em> at him. Greek, his mind supplied him. He had a feeling he shouldn’t really know that, with little surprise.</p><p>“You’ve got that type of complexion, the dark hair and all,” Frank offered. “Maybe they think you’re actually Greek.”</p><p>Percy shrugged. “Yeah, maybe.”</p><p>“Or...” Frank hesitated.</p><p>“What is it?” Percy asked, encouraging. It was probably something negative and he didn’t want Frank to be afraid to tell him.</p><p>“Probably nothing. Romans and Greeks have an old rivalry. Sometimes Romans use <em> graecus </em> as an insult for someone who’s an outsider—an enemy. I wouldn't worry about it.”</p><p>Percy decided he wasn’t going to worry about it, even if that sounded like it was probably correct. There was nothing he could do about it at the moment. </p><p>Reyna dismissed Frank and brought Hazel and Percy into the lavish <em> principia</em>. She sat in one of the two chairs behind a table, flanked by a pair of metal dogs—one golden and one silver.</p><p>“First things first,” Reyna said. “I want to hear your story. What <em> do </em> you remember? How did you get here? And don’t lie, my dogs don't like liars.”</p><p>Percy bit back a grin, feeling like he was humoring her as he explained how he woke up in the Wolf House without his memories, dueled Lupa, and had been on his way to camp for the past few weeks.</p><p>“You’re way too old for a recruit,” Reyna said, finally, with a frown. “Twenty three? Four? And the memory issue is unusual.”</p><p>“Twenty-six,” Percy corrected, though he couldn't tell how he knew it. “What do you mean way too old?”</p><p>“We start training the kids from the city at eleven,” Reyna said. “Barring special circumstances. Demigods—both children of the gods and legacies—outside of New Rome find their way here through Lupa, usually around the same time. Frank came later than most, just recently, and we had Lupa bring us a child that was only three a while ago.”</p><p>“Three!” Percy exclaimed. The comment about the children from the city starting at eleven was alarming, but at least they were protected within the borders and got to live a safe life until then. A <em> three year old </em> on the other hand, especially a three year old that was left in the care of a wolf, goddess or not…</p><p>Reyna winced. “Yeah, his name’s Jason, a son of Jupiter. He’s been in the legion ever since, but has been missing for the past eight months. Did you hear anything about him?”</p><p>Percy shrugged. “Doesn’t ring any bells, but then again nothing does.”</p><p>“As for your memory…”</p><p>“I just know that my name’s Percy Jackson, and I only know that last name because the monsters keep calling me it. I also know I’ve got a wife named Annabeth—does that sound familiar to you?”</p><p>Reyna shook her head, seeming genuinely apologetic. “I’ve never heard of an Annabeth that’s passed through the legion. And you haven’t been through, either.”</p><p>She held out her forearm. She had a tattoo on the inner part—SPQR over a crossed sword and torch over four parallel lines. Hazel had one, too, SPQR over a black glyph and one line. Percy’s arm was bare.</p><p>“It’s practically impossible that you spent that many years on your own, without training or help. Children of Neptune have powerful auras. If this Annabeth was with you...maybe if you were with a small group? But even then, you’d need a safe place to hole up,” Reyna said, contemplative. “And for Juno herself to announce you...the Queen of Olympus doesn’t just appear at camp. There are only legends about major gods visiting camp in person.”</p><p>“Your guess is as good as mine,” Percy said.</p><p>Reyna got up and started pacing behind her desk. “You also were trailed by Medusa’s sisters—who haven’t been seen for thousands of years—agitate our Lares, and wear strange symbols.”</p><p>Percy followed her gaze to his t-shirt. There once had been a black design and what might’ve been words on it, but it had long since faded past recognizable. There was the necklace, too, with fourteen heavy beads on it each with different intricate designs. There was a turquoise trident, the Empire State Building, a seemingly regular looking house, a wedding cake, and what looked like a lancing crack on a set of stone steps, among others. He didn’t know what they meant, but looking at them made something warm light up in his chest.</p><p>“I don’t know,” Percy shrugged.</p><p>“Do you have any weapons?” Reyna asked.</p><p>He showed her the pen, and how it turned into a sword.</p><p>“What is it? I’ve never seen a sword like that.” Hazel asked, golden eyes coming close to glowing. Probably from the natural glow his sword gave off, but maybe there was something more there. Plenty of demigod’s eyes glowed when they used their powers. <em> ((How did he know that?)) </em></p><p>“I have,” Reyna said, contemplative and grim. “ It’s very old<span>—</span>a Greek design. The metal is called Celestial bronze. I heard we used to have some, back before Mount Othrys. It’s deadly to monsters, like Imperial gold, but even rarer.”</p><p>“Imperial gold?” Percy asked. Celestial bronze and the monster-killing properties sounded familiar enough, but Imperial gold seemed completely new to his scrambled up brain.</p><p>Reyna showed off her golden dagger. “The metal was consecrated in ancient times, at the Pantheon in Rome. Its existence was a closely guarded secret of the emperors<span>—</span>a way for their champions to slay monsters that threatened the empire. We used to have more weapons like this, but now...well, we scrape by. I use this dagger. Hazel has a <em> spatha</em>, most legionnaires use a <em> gladius</em>.”</p><p>Percy had no idea what any of that indicated. Instead, he decided to bring up something that was bothering him.</p><p>“Juno and the gorgons both mentioned something about a feast?”</p><p>“The Feast of Fortuna, goddess of luck,” Hazel supplied. “Whatever happens on her feast day can affect the entire rest of the year. She can grant the camp good luck or <em> really </em> bad luck.”</p><p>“They said camp was going to be attacked on that day,” Percy said. Despite the severity of such a statement he felt calm and collected. “They mentioned Gaea, an army, and Death being unleashed.”</p><p>Reyna paled, just slightly. “You will say nothing about that outside this room,” she ordered. “I will not have you spreading more panic in this camp.”</p><p>Percy held up his hands. “Of course.”</p><p>“Bring him to Temple Hill,” Reyna told Hazel. “Find Octavian.”</p><p>“Will the camp be alright?” Percy couldn’t help but ask Reyna. “Do you have the proper plans, and defenses?”</p><p>Reyna’s fingers tightened around her dagger. “We’ve talked enough for now.”</p><p>He followed Hazel from the <em> principia</em>. He tried to dance around her buying him food, but he was honestly starving and scarfed down the espresso and cherry muffin. </p><p>He made light conversation<span>—</span>asking about the increasingly-nice barracks, the bathhouse they passed, the way they separated out into what they called cohorts. He found out there was about 200 kids at camp, a large portion of which were legacies. Second or third gen demigods, for some reason, just about blew his mind. They ran into Vitellius the Lares. Hazel explained how Jupiter ordered the Twelfth Legion underground in order to protect demigod kids and keep Rome going, gaining them the name <em> Fulminata</em>.</p><p>He looked over the city<span>—</span>the city that held a college, an elementary school, an entire community of <em> adult demigods </em> living out their lives. It made him ache, somewhere deep down in his chest.</p><p>“Are you okay?” Hazel asked, fingers barely brushing his sleeve.</p><p>Percy rubbed the water from his eyes with the back of his hand. “Yeah,” he said thickly. “Yeah, I’m okay. This is just…”</p><p>He couldn’t articulate it, every time he tried to wrap his head around it the memory block made the words go all slippery. It was familiar, but nonexistent. Hopeful, but not quite realized. <em> Safe </em> in a way nothing else could be, not long term.</p><p>“They get to live out the rest of their lives here, after their service?” he asked, instead.</p><p>Hazel looked concerned. “Yeah. They’re backup, in case the legion doesn’t quite manage to hold any attack off. Usually it’s just a title, but...our strength isn’t what it used to be. We’d only just begun regaining strength after the war a decade ago, but lately the monster attacks have been increasing. What you said about the gorgons not dying...we’ve noticed that too, with other monsters.”</p><p>“Do you know what’s causing it?” Percy asked before his mind caught up with what she said. <em> War</em>, a decade back. What could have possibly warred with a modern demigod legion? He was old enough that he might even know, and he <em> did </em> know something about a war. <em> But what- </em></p><p>“It’s-it’s complicated,” Hazel said, about the monster problem. “My brother says Death isn’t-”</p><p>They were interrupted by an elephant in Kevlar armor walking past, and whatever epiphany Percy had been teetering on the edge of vanished.</p><p>“Octavian is busy,” Hazel said, pointing at the dark clouds and red lightning flashing over Temple Hill. “We’d better get over there.”</p><p>They were immediately accosted by what Percy could only assume was a homeless satyr. <em> Faun</em>. Who apparently didn’t work for camp, just like none of the fauns worked for camp. Because fauns were useless bums who begged on the street. Apparently.</p><p>“Hazel is awesome,” Don the Faun gushed. “She’s so nice! All the other campers are like, ‘Go away, Don.’ But she’s like, ‘Please go away, Don.’ I love her! Oh, score!”</p><p>He reached down for something glittering at their feet.</p><p>Hazel screamed, “Don, no!” And Percy could immediately pick up on the <em> terror-fear-worry-desperation </em> in those two words. She scooped up whatever Don was reaching for and slipped it into her pocket. It looked like a diamond, not that Percy had a great eye for that kind of thing.</p><p>“Come on, Hazel,” Don complained. “I could’ve bought a year’s worth of donuts with that!”</p><p>Hazel hastily shooed the faun away, then, and hustled Percy towards Temple Hill. She seemed genuinely shaken, and Percy kind of just wanted to hug her. </p><p>“What was that about?” Percy asked, not wanting to press but knowing that sometimes kids needed it. Somehow, knowing that. Maybe he knew a lot of kids. He briefly had the realization that he might <em> have </em> kids of his own, and just didn’t remember it. That caused a startling drop in the bit of his stomach. It-it <em> couldn’t </em> be right, it didn’t feel familiar in the way that a lot of things did, but <em> still</em>.</p><p>“Please,” Hazel said, almost pleading. “Don’t ask.”</p><p>Hazel pointed out the temples and altars as they walked up a crooked stone path. The Temple of Bellona, Mars Ultor, and Jupiter Optimus Maximus were the largest, in that order. Neptune’s temple was a tool shed sized dusty building, with three moldy apples.</p><p>He left a somewhat stale bagel<span>—</span>the last of the food he had from his trip<span>—</span>on the altar.</p><p>“Father,” he said. He felt something strange rise up in him, a similar type feeling as when he stood in the ocean. He almost continued<span>—</span>almost asked for guidance, or gave thanks to allow him to reach camp<span>—</span>but he stopped. He wasn’t angry at his father, but he wasn’t about to go praising him. Percy was in the middle of California in a demigod camp he didn’t recognize without his wife and his father had done nothing to help him. Maybe he tried, and Percy just didn’t know, but it wasn’t like he had any evidence of that.</p><p>He turned to leave. The bagel would have to be enough to convey his respect, his lack of words enough to convey his vague irritation.</p><p>Hazel put her hand on his elbow. Gods, she was tiny, head barely at his shoulder. She looked up at him with golden eyes all round and sympathetic.</p><p>He smiled at her. He was okay<span>—</span>he was, really, more okay than people might assume an amnesiac demigod to be<span>—</span>and it wasn’t her job to have to comfort him, even if he wasn’t. She was thirteen. Unpresented. <em> A child</em>.</p><p>“Octavian’s nearly done,” she said, softly.</p><p>“Let’s go, then,” Percy said with only a little forced cheer.</p><p>Octavian turned out to be a sickly looking skinny teenager in a toga and an oversized set of streetwear. He had a glimmer in his eyes that Percy intimately recognized as someone who was about to stab first and ask questions later, and would have doing so. That look did not bode well for the knife he held in one hand and the torn apart teddy bear in the other.</p><p>“Percy,” Hazel introduced. “This is Octavian.”</p><p>“The <em>graecus!”</em> Octavian said. “How interesting!”</p><p>Octavian came closer, carelessly tossing the teddy bear at the foot of Jupiter’s statue. <em> ((The inaccurate Jupiter’s statue, the master bolt didn’t look...didn’t…)) </em> He was a beta, maybe eighteen at the oldest. He, despite the crazy in his eye, at least Percy could understand allowing to hold a weapon like that unsupervised.</p><p>“Why did you call me that?”</p><p>“I saw it in the auguries. The message said: <em> The Greek has arrived.</em> Or possible: <em> The goose has cried. </em> I’m thinking the first interpretation is correct. It didn’t say how old you’d be, though.” He had his eyes narrowed like that was somehow Percy’s fault and not the obviously nebulous stuffed animal guts.</p><p>Hazel stepped in to explain how Percy had come to camp carrying Juno.</p><p>“Juno was at camp?” Octavian interrupted. “Hm. Juno Moneta appears in times of crisis, to counsel Rome about great threats.”</p><p>Percy brushed off the scrutinizing glare he received. “I hear the Feast of Fortuna is this week? The gorgons warned of an invasion on that day. Anything about that in the stuffing?”</p><p>“Sadly, no. The will of the gods is hard to discern. Especially these days…”</p><p>“Is there any sort of oracle you could ask?” Percy asked. An oracle sounded right, for some reason. Weren’t they all the rage in Ancient Greece? The same must be at least partially true for Ancient Rome, with most of the same stories.</p><p>“No, no,” Octavian impatiently brushed aside as if Percy was a kid asking about the Civil War during biology. Rude. “We only have some remaining scraps from the Sibylline books, like that there.”</p><p>Percy followed his gesture to the inscriptions on the floor.</p><p>He was smacked in the face with-with-with <em> something. </em></p><p>“That, there,” he choked out. “<em>Seven half-bloods shall answer the call. To storm or fire the world must fall-</em>”</p><p>“<em>An oath to keep with a final breath, and foes bear arms to the Doors of Death</em>,” Octavian finished without looking. “What of it?”</p><p>“I know it,” Percy said, trying desperately to dreg up the memory associated with it. “It’s <em> important</em>.”</p><p>“Of course it’s important. We call it the Prophecy of Seven, but it’s several thousand years old. We don’t know what it means. Every time someone tries to interpret it bad things happen.”</p><p>Hazel let out a soft huff. “Will you just read out the augury for Percy? Is he to join the legion, or not?”</p><p>Octavian plucked the pillow pet from Percy’s bag without even asking. Little shit was lucky Percy didn’t snap at him. As it was, he had to suppress the edges of a growl from leaving his throat. Didn’t he realize that taking one of the few items that an omega owned<span>—</span>especially the only visibly comforting item<span>—</span>was a terrible idea, and rude at that? It wasn’t like Percy was <em> attached </em> per say, but he was also definitely attached. That was the one thing he owned that he would even consider putting into a nest, which was a high honor at this point in the grim he’d picked up in his travelling.</p><p>“Hey!” he protested. </p><p>Octavian sliced open the panda bear and frowned over the entrails. Percy was busy fighting off the urge to cuff him across the back of the head, if not something worse.</p><p>“Well?” Hazel asked, impatiently, after really too much time.</p><p>“He’s...to remain here. Not join, I don’t...hm. No, nevermind that. We’ll assign him a cohort. Tell Reyna I approve.”</p><p>Hazel frowned, leaning a little away from Octavian. “Uh...okay. I’ll tell her.”</p><p>“Oh, and Hazel? With the elections coming up…”</p><p>“Jason isn’t dead,” Hazel said, fists balled tight.</p><p>“Perhaps,” Octavian said. “But despite how I search for him, the gods have offered me nothing. We cannot continue to have this power vacuum. I hope you’ll support me, when the time comes.”</p><p>Hazel snorted out a derisive laugh.</p><p>“You best remember what I could do for you,” he said, casual as if he was discussing what was for dinner that night. “With those awful rumors circulating…”</p><p>Percy was immediately on guard for a reason much more important than a stupid pillow pet. Octavian sounded...just on the wrong side of threatening. Considering how many years older he was than Hazel<span>—</span>and more well established, if the seven lines beneath Apollo’s lyre on his arm were any indication, not to mention being the augur<span>—</span>gave off immediate bad vibes.</p><p>“I’ll think about it,” Hazel said. She looked like she was holding herself back from decking the guy.</p><p>“Excellent. Your brother is waiting for you by your father’s shrine.”</p><p>Brother? Percy knew Hazel had mentioned a brother, but she had also said that she didn’t have any siblings at camp. </p><p>“My brother? Why?”</p><p>“Why does he do anything? Make sure he isn’t invited to stay too long, he’s terrible for morale.”</p><p>Hazel spun on her heel and all but stomped out of the pavilion. Percy followed with one last suspicious glance at Octavian. What an asshole, <em> especially </em> if he was blackmailing a literal thirteen year old.</p><p>He listened as Hazel muttered about how awful Octavian was, and complained how awful it would be if he’d be elected co-praetor despite how likely that was seeming.</p><p>“He’s that bad?”</p><p>Hazel shuddered. “You don’t know the half of it. He’s got lots of friends, most of them <em> bought</em>.”</p><p>Percy just hummed. A skinny kid like him didn’t scare him, but he could see how having a chokehold on camp might be an issue. Especially if he was already in a relatively prestigious position.</p><p>“Come with me to see my brother, he’ll want to meet you,” Hazel invited.</p><p>Percy didn’t want to intrude<span>—</span>it sounded like this brother wasn’t around at camp all that often, and he was sure Hazel would like to speak to him alone<span>—</span>but he was curious about what blackmail Octavian could possibly have on her. Maybe this brother would have an idea about where Percy had been before the memory problems, too, if he traveled outside of camp. And it wasn’t like he had anywhere else to go.</p><p>Hazel led Percy to a black crypt built into the side of the hill. Standing in front was a young man<span>—</span>twenty something, younger than Percy but definitely not a teenager. He wore black jeans and a beat-to-hell aviator jacket, long dark hair tied back in a half-up-half-down bun at the back of his head.</p><p>“Hey!” Hazel called.</p><p>The man turned.</p><p>Percy knew him. </p><p><em>Percy <span class="u"><strong>knew</strong> </span>him</em>.</p><p>The man’s mouth fell open, dark eyes widening. He was healthy looking, Percy noticed, if a little paler than he should be. The olive in his skin was just slightly too flat in tone, but his face wasn’t gaunt and he <em> had </em> color to his skin. He was leaning on a solid black, metal cane<span>—</span>not too heavily, just casual rather than by necessity. He had a silver skull ring on his right hand and a silver and gold ring on his left ring finger. Lots of silver earrings, some glimmering with gems but most plain, hung in his ears and studded his lip, nose, and eyebrows.</p><p>“This is Percy Jackson,” Hazel introduced, seemingly not noticing her brother’s reaction. “Percy, this is my brother, Nico.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>this is so long oh my god why</p><p>anyways</p><p>please comment if you liked this or want more, motivation for pjo stuff is always low because lack of engagement despite how much I absolutely adore the fandom</p><p>Edits made 1/8/21</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So...what do you think? I don't really write much for the Percy Jackson series, but I loved to when I was in middle school. I'm planning on maybe re-reading HoO and maybe write this as I go, but motivation and priority for this is probably going to be relatively low--just as a warning, I'm focusing a lot of attention on a castlevania fic at the moment.</p><p>Please drop a comment or a like if you enjoyed :)</p><p><a href="https://omegros.tumblr.com">You can find my tumblr here!</a> I post updates and some funny stuff about this verse!</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>